


The McKenna Bet

by CaffeineJunkie



Category: Power Rangers (2017)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Bi!Kim, Bi!Zack, F/F, Fluff, Kim is thirtsy, Kim&Zack brotp, Trini is a tease, Zack is Zack, competitive friends, no powers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-02-28
Packaged: 2019-03-10 09:30:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,567
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13499220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaffeineJunkie/pseuds/CaffeineJunkie
Summary: Kim and Zack have been best friends for as long as the two can remember but when McKenna Everett walks into 8th grade with more curves than a racetrack a bet is made to save their friendship. It was supposed to be a one time thing. 5 years on they are breaking even. Cue Trini the cute but tiny coffee shop barista with an affinity for beanie hats. Maybe she could be the tie breaker they've been needing and finally put an end to the 'McKenna Bet'.OrKim and Zack are both crushing on Trini and Trini is a tease who doesn't want to just be a prize in some silly bet.





	1. And so it begins ...

It all started with McKenna Everett. It was the first day of 8th grade, puberty had hit the dark haired girl like a freight train over the summer and all of a sudden she had mind blowing curves that, Kimberly Ann Hart was certain, had not existed before. Kimberly was only just thirteen, she still got a thrill out of painting her lips with softly tinted lipgloss and wearing a ghosting of mascara. It made her feel older, grown up, but her washboard chest and the stinging embarrassment of having to ask her mum for a padded bra was enough to slam her right back down to earth feeling no older than a pre-schooler. 

For this reason, she should have been jealous of McKenna. Amanda certainly was. Her comments were jarringly see-through as she snidely commented about sluts and trying too hard to get boys attention. Kim had felt jealousy before though and what she was feeling right then int hat moment definitely wasn’t jealousy. No, it was a crush, not the like silly little crushes she’d had before where she’d giggled about how pretty a girl was or how a boy had held her hand. It was a full blown don’t know quite what to do with yourself crush. Before that day she’d never really wanted to kiss anyone, at least not like people kiss in movies, but now, McKenna Everett had gone and flipped her hormone induced world upside down. 

The problem was, she wasn’t the only one. Cue Zachary Taylor, Angel Grove Middle School’s bad boy, cute guy and, unfortunately, Kim’s best friend stroke biggest rival.  
“I’m gonna ask McKenna out. I mean, have you seen her? What happened over summer?” Zack smirked, leaning back against the grass as Kim marked out her cheerleading choreography. Next year she would be trying out for the high school team which meant that this year she had to put in the work.  
“You’re not asking McKenna out, Zack” Kim replied, not missing a beat in her routine.  
“Uh, yeah I am” he frowned, propping himself up to finally meet his friends gaze.  
“No, you’re not. You can’t” Her response was stern and hovered rather close to an almost spoilt tone despite her having tried very, very hard over the years to not act spoilt at all. She stopped moving, her hands falling to her sides as she weighed up the boy in-front of her.  
“Why, you got a crush on me Kimmy? You Jealous?” He teased, smirking in that infuriating Zack way.  
“Me? Have a crush on you!?” She scoffed, flopping onto the floor beside him, stealing his apple from the discarded lunch beside him. “Oh Honey, you aren’t my type. But no, you can’t ask McKenna out, because I’m gonna ask her out.”  
Zack rolled his eyes. Of course Kimberly wanted the same girl as him. They always did end up liking the same people. “Dude, really? Does she even like chicks?”  
“She might! Which is why you can’t ask her out, anyway, I saw her first so I have dibs” It felt almost as if they were fighting over who got to pick what movie they were going to watch at a sleep over rather than a girl.  
“What, scared she’d pick me?” He was still smirking, the challenge in his voice like a spark to dry kindling. 

“Hah! You wish! As if she’d pick you over me!”  
“Wanna bet, Hart?”  
“Oh you are so on Taylor!”  
"One rule, the loser cant be pissed at the winner."  
"Deal"

Three days later found the two sprawled out on the grass in the same location, their faces vast contrasts of each other. One smug, the other defeated.  
“Told you she’d pick me, victory is sweet Kimmy”  
“Fuck you, Zack. You got lucky, thats all.” She sighed, flopping her head on to Zack’s stomach and scrunching her face in irritation “Urgh, straight girls. Next time, I’m totally gonna win!”  
“Who says’s there’ll be a next time? I don’t need anyone else in my life, I mean, I’m probably gonna marry McKenna Everett. We’ll have like three kids, you can be their godmother and they’ll remind you ever day that their mom picked me not you!” 

Kim couldn’t help but throw a playful punch at the boy. She might have been a cheerleader but she definitely wasn’t above a friendly play fight every now and again. Especially when she could prove to Zachary Taylor that she was most certainly better than him. “Tap out” she demanded smugly and he weakly conceded. Their laugher carried across the playing field as they joked with each other, the tug of childhood mingling with their desires to grow up all too fast.

Of course, as Kim had predicted, there was a next time. Her name was Jessie Peters and she became the next ‘bet’ 8 weeks after Zack dumped McKenna for writing Hunter Michaels a valentines day card. After that there was Sophie Carlisle and suddenly a tradition was formed when the two teenagers happened to fall for the same person. By the time they were half way through with High-school they were dead even at 3 wins a piece, Kim having pulled them up to a tie with the “win” of Ty Flemming. 

Given the circumstances, she’d have happily lost that one. He turned out to be a jerk, she’d wasted 6 months on that douche and she may have ended it by punching his tooth out. “They totally put it back! You can’t even tell!” She playfully pushed the laughing boy as she groaned. “Stop laughing! It wasn’t just me that got all thirsty over him! We literally have the worst taste in dates ever! Plus, you really need to stop liking the same people as me, it’ creepy.” 

“If we stop liking the same people, how will I ever pull back ahead? We are tied and that clearly means I'm not ranking higher than you in the flirting department, my ego can’t take that bruising, I've seen you flirt!” Zack laughed, ignoring his friends pleading to stop laughing. Ty Flemming might have been hot, but, he was a dick.  
He’d hated the way the boy had treated Kim, the way that his confident, take-no-shit best friend had let the boy walk all over her until he pushed her to breaking point. He only wished he’d had a camera to capture the moment when Kimmy’s fist had ploughed right into the slimy bastards face with a sickening crunch. It really was a shame they’d managed to put the tooth back in. 

Soon enough they were off to College. Clairemont McKenna. Zack’s mum’s health hadn't been the best the past few years and with it being only an hour away from Angel Grove on offering a full scholarship in Financial Economics to the boy it had been a no brainer. As for Kim, it had been her father’s school. She’d grown up wearing his CMC t-shirt to bed and telling everyone that when she was older she was going to do Molecular Biology at her Daddy’s college just like him. 

The bet hadn’t been re-visited since Ty despite both of them casually dating people over the past year or so. It had almost been forgotten as a silly childhood game, something that was only lightly joked about in passing when a pretty girl or hot guy walked by them by in the street or at the mall. So, when Kim slumped into the booth at the incredibly hipster coffee shop just off of campus where her best friend sat smirking nursing a half drunk coffee, the “McKenna bet” - as it had been dubbed years ago - was the very last thing on her mind. 

“I’ve got dibs, I saw her first!” were the first words out of the boys mouth and Kim’s head snapped to attention, her face slipping into confusion.  
“Hi to you too, Zack. Today’s been great! Thanks for asking, how’s your da-” the words died on her lips as her eyes finally found the reason for the sudden announcement. Damn! The noise that slipped from her throat was one she was sure she’d never made before as the words jarred in her throat. “Well, fuck me! Shit, she’s …” Kim gulped, oblivious to Zack’s shit eating grin across the table at her sudden lack of eloquence. 

He knew the minute he saw the small girl currently serving that she would be his best friends type, it was the main reason he was expressing his interest, he smirked as he looked over at Kim, a challenging glint in his eyes. “Nope. You’ve not ... you can’t ‘dibs’ her. I refuse!”  
“You suggesting we re-instate the ‘McKenna Bet’? I mean, it would be fitting, considering the university and all Claremont McKenna? Plus, could finally end the tie. One last challenge to dub the champion?” Zack proposed, his smirk goading the short haired girl and his eyebrow quipped as if daring her to back down.

“Oh, you are so on Taylor, prepare to lose kid, I’m not taking prisoners this time!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey! Hope you guys like the start to this fic, It's an idea that popped into my head and seems to have taken up permanent residence. I actually have this pretty mapped out already (which is crazy rare, I usually just wing it and see when it ends up) so hopefully updates won’t take me too long!
> 
> Please let me know what you think so far, I love to hear any feedback about whats good, bad or any hopes for future chapters :) Also, sorry if I mess up with any Americanisms or the college system I am from England so all of my America knowledge is being pulled from google. Feel free to yell at me about that if I get it wrong haha! 
> 
> Thanks for reading! xoxo


	2. Almost Unbearably Smug

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so I am popping this at the beginning this time as this chapter contains some motions of past psychological abuse and I wanted to warn people before they read the chapter in case it upsets anyone as I know it is a sensitive subject but I felt it was a necessary part of Kim’s character development. :) Sorry for the late post, my laptop died and I’ve only just managed to pull all the files off of my old one onto my new one. Hope you guys like it! xoxo

Zack was feeling almost unbearably smug. More than smug really because Zack was awesome, amazing and fucking epic – his opinion of course. It wasn’t, however, his inflated ego that was making him feel smug; no, he was smug because he had a plan. The best plan ever conceived, a plan to make all other plans seem simple and boring, a plan that was damn fucking good - it should be noted that this was also just his opinion of course. 

Now the reason for Zack needing a plan dates back to high school when Ty I’m-a-jackass Fleming decided to come crashing into his and Kimberly’s lives and leaving utter destruction in his wake. He was a prick. A total dick head and wanker extraordinaire. If there was a prize for being the biggest douche on the planet Zack was pretty confident in the fact that Ty Fleming would have at least placed in the top three. He was so much of a knob that he had completely screwed over Kim in every possible way and the fucker had fucking enjoyed it. 

It had started with the underhanded comments, “Are you sure you want to eat that?” and “I thought cheerleaders were skinny”. Then it had progressed to guilt and pressure, “Don’t you love me?” and “Are you frigid? Any other girl would kill to fuck me”. 

The comparisons had come next, “Sophie, has bigger boobs than you, I wish yours were better” and “Have you seen Tanya’s ass, you should do more squats, yours is as flat as a pancake”. This was all rounded off with dragging down any of her remaining confidence by making telling her how much of an inconvenience she was at any opportunity he got; it was bad to say the least. He’d pleaded with Kim to break things off with Ty, told her that it was abuse, that it was wrong on so many levels but, Kim being so wrapped up in this little bubble he had created believing every damaging word that spilled from his mouth, she wouldn’t listen. 

She’d roll her eyes and tell him that Ty had a point; she should lose weight or that boob jobs weren’t even that expensive really or that she wished she would stop being so fucking annoying. Then there were the nights she would cry on Zack’s shoulder, scared that Ty would break up with her because she wasn’t ready, did that make her frigid? Should she sleep with him even though she didn’t want to? Was she being unfair to him? She’d wanted it to be romantic her first time for it to be special, but maybe she was being silly. It was only sex right? 

Zack had never been so happy the day he found out that the bastard had been cheating on Kim because finally, finally, all the shit he had put her through had hit home for Kim. She ended it effectively by removing his tooth with her fist when he wouldn’t take the verbal ending of the relationship from the girl and had grabbed her arm hard enough to leave a hand print bruise. Kim had always been tough and she acted like the whole Ty situation (as it was later referred to) was in the past, that she was over it. Zack knew better than that. 

For one, Kimberly no longer dated. At least, she talked about dating, about girls and boys she liked and thought were cute, but she never actually dated. She also barely flirted anymore, once upon a time every other word out of her mouth was a flirty jibe or double entendre, now she would just smile and give a small laugh, like she was worried that anything more would be irritating or unwanted. Blending herself into the background so to cause the least amount of disruption when she had once taken center stage with no reservations.

Perhaps the biggest change was that Kimberly suddenly cared so much more. Cared in a way that she never had before, cared that people might not like her clothes, or think that her hair looked stupid or that her personality was boring. She cared so fucking much about other people’s opinions when before she couldn’t have give a shit what anyone else thought so long as she liked herself. 

Of course, she was still a cocky little shit around Zack. To Zack, she was still exactly the same kid that had shared her cookie with him that first day of kindergarten. To Zack she was still the girl who he would watch work so hard to make sure she did the absolute very best she could whether it was for a biology quiz or cheerleading try-outs. To everyone else though, it was like her whole world had shifted, she had lost something that was fundamentally Kimberly in those few short months. In Zack’s book that just wasn’t okay. 

It was for this reason he needed a plan and that plan came in the form of a 5 foot 1 crazy girl with an obsession for yellow and an attitude that well exceeded her short stature. Now, he didn’t actually know this girl, per say, though he knew of her. She had maxed out all the high scores at the local arcade in the first week of being at Clairemont McKenna filling every slot on the leaderboards with “I’m that good I'm pretty sure I'm a superhero :)”. 

Zack had immediately appealed to the guy who helped out restoring the old arcade machines, Billy Cranston, for any info on her he had because, fuck, that girl was damn near perfect. Cocky, a little nerdy, tiny and absolutely stunning, she was exactly what Kimberly needed. Billy had told him she worked at a little coffee shop just off of campus and then Zack set himself to do some casual online stalking. 

It wasn’t like she had privatised her Instagram or Twitter so it wasn’t really stalking. Plus, this wasn’t for him so definitely a lot less creepy … right? Then again, creepy or not, Zack didn’t really care; the pictures of her kissing girls gave him the confidence that Kim would actually have a shot with her and her posts suggested she wasn’t some fuckboy like Ty and was the final – read ‘only’ - piece that he needed to get operation ‘Zack is the best motherfucking friend any girl could ask for’ in motion. 

Now he just needed to convince Kim that she needed to go for it. She’d never put herself out there without a little nudge, that much was clear. Usually if she saw a girl she liked she’d get all nervous and try to convey through the power of telepathy that she was gay whilst blushing and sneaking glances at her. _Surprisingly_ that didn’t usually work. The only time she was ever remotely smooth, to Zack’s knowledge at least, was when she was worried that she might miss her opportunity. 

**The Best Motherfucking Friend Ever!:** Coffee date catch up? You actually go to your lectures and I miss you :(

 **Kim Possible:** You changed your name in my phone again? Also, you miss me? You literally crashed in my room last night??? x

 **The Best Motherfucking Friend Ever!:** I made it more truthful and I was trashed, doesn’t count if I can’t remember it! So, coffee? There is this great coffee shop I found that does the best brownies ever! Please Kimmie!! You love me right?

 **Kim Possible:** Dipshit was more accurate. But fine I guess I’m always good for coffee, when? And you’re fucking lucky I do idiot x

 **The Best Motherfucking Friend Ever!:** <3 <3 <3 Knew it!! And 1.30 good? 

**Kim Possible:** Sounds great, send me the address. Now piss off, my lectures starting and I am actually here to learn unlike you! x

Okay the brownie thing was a lie, Zack had never actually been to the place to even try the treats but their online menu said they had brownies and Kim didn’t like brownies so she’d be none the wiser. Plus, there was a chance that the girl wouldn’t even be working when they went in so if the first time was a fail he was going to need an excuse to go back again and if that meant he had to eat multiple brownies, Zack was willing to make that sacrifice. 

He shoots Kim the address and, two hours later, he is grinning from ear to ear as he steps into the coffee shop a good twenty minutes too early. Sure enough, the small girl from the arcade is busy cleaning up empty mugs from the table to his right as he enters and he stops himself, with a huge amount of self control, from fist pumping right then and there. Operation ‘Zack is the best motherfucking friend any girl could ask for’ couldn’t be going better if Oprah herself had planned it! Instead he runs his hand through his hair and lets an easy smirk slip onto his face as he walks up to the counter. 

Up until this point he had been smugly lost in his own self praise and when he finally payed attention to his surroundings his smirk falters just a little as he takes in the redhead asking for his order. Was it a prerequisite for the job that all the girls that worked at this place had to be out of this world stunning or something? Internally he groans, of course it had all been going too well. It takes the last remaining self control he has to not throw in the towel on the whole operation and ask the girl in front of him out, but, the plan is going too smoothly to fuck it up with his flirting. This is for Kimberly, he reminds himself, being a good friend sucked sometimes. 

“White chocolate iced caffè mocha, with marshmallows and extra whipped cream please, oh and uh a chocolate brownie” he replies with a smile, keeping his tone as neutral as possible and forcing himself not to let his eyes wander anywhere they shouldn’t. 

“Wow, someone has a sweet tooth? You don’t seem like the type, I’d have pegged you for a hard core expresso kind of guy?” the barista quips, an eyebrow raised as she failed to hide her appreciative glance at him. Even her voice was sexy with a slight Scottish lilt to it and Damn! Any other day. Any other day and he would have been upping his game. Of course an insanely hot redhead would flirt with him today of all days. Today when he absolutely could not flirt with the colleague of the girl he had to pretend to want to date. It wasn’t as if he didn’t find the other girl stunning, it was just, she was so clearly one hundred percent perfect for Kim that it was kind of a turn off for him. 

Before he could reply the sound of someone clearing their throat interrupted the situation and Zack, for the first time ever, was grateful that someone had stepped in to stop him from saying something that would fuck this whole thing up. The redhead flushed instantly as if she had just realised where she was before shooting the other barista a sheepish look and rung up his order silently. Clearly she shouldn’t be flirting with the customers and Zack struggled to stop the smirk from slipping easily onto his face. She’s cute.

He was halfway down his overly sweet drink by the time Kim flopped into the booth. “I’ve got dibs, I saw her first!” Game, Set. He didn’t even need to indicate who he was talking about as his best friend stopped mid ramble, finally catching sight of subject of Zack’s very out of the blue comment. 

“Oh, you are so on Taylor, prepare to lose kid, I’m not taking prisoners this time!” Match. 

Operation ‘Zack is the best motherfucking friend any girl could ask for’ was a go. 

Now all Kim had to do was get her ass into gear and ask the girl out, then maybe, just maybe, he could see where things went with the red head because fuck if he was going to be this good of a friend he definitely deserved a reward in return right?


End file.
